Stats
Photo by Aliaksei Smalenski: https://www.pexels.com/photo/funny-photo-of-the-shiba-inu-dog-in-a-pilot-suit-at-the-airport-16269534/
After 2 weeks of gathering stats from a libre device or continuous glucose monitor (CGM) and within the latter part of my first year in remission from type 2 diabetes I have some more stats to look at.
Averaged over 2 weeks of data I have an Average Glucose of 6.0 mmol/L. The libre reports Glucose Management Indicator (GMI) Approximated HbA1c of 5.9% or 41 mmol/mol.
When I first started looking at these figures the array of statistical measures that are used to monitor glucose levels were confusing and I found it difficult to find a plain and simple explanation of what is ok. My current understanding is that something between 5 and 7 mmol/L is considered normal for a non-diabetic person. So I am within that range.
I spoke with a medical person a while back asking what should be my target glucose and I was advised to try and stay below 10 mmol/L. Another I spoke to after having to reduce the use of drugs that had been prescribed to me as my blood glucose had fallen to below 7 said to me that I had done very well but needed to be prepared to start taking drugs again in the future. I wondered what this meant as I couldn’t get an answer as to why this could happen but here is a theory of mine.
Many folks who are reversing type 2 are doing so I believe based on the advice of medical people that do not recommend high fat diets, rather by just cutting calories. In effect, they are ‘dieting’, rather than changing lifestyle long term. I base this theory on my thinking that cutting out calories is a kind of starvation, maintained by will power. Over time however, the metabolism is still used to burning carbohydrate and still has a tendency to store fat as way to cope with sugar and carbohydrate overload. When the will power subsides and the bodies natural mechanisms kick in, putting back on weight previously lost is inevitable. The condition of ‘fatty liver’ may return and together with it hyperinsulinemia and type 2 diabetes. Back to the drugs.
If however, the ‘calories in calories out’ hypothesis is dropped in favour of the low carb high fat movement, carbohydrate rich starchy foods and sugar are replaced by dense fat based alternatives that do not readily convert to glucose in the blood stream. This is sustainable as over time, the ‘yo yo’ effect of dieting and calorie counting is avoided. Further to, my findings are that I tend to eat less than I did before simply in terms of volume as my body now has the nutrient rich food sources it needs. The once daily hunger cycles I thought of as part of life are no more.
Indeed, daily intermittent fasting is not only achievable, it is, of recent relatively easy, something I remember thinking as inconceivable if not unattainable.
If you are wondering where to find out more for yourself, I would for now recommend the youtube channel low carb down under in which you will encounter many speakers at health conferences held in places like Australia and New Zealand but attended by people from all over the world. Most are medical experts in their field. Some have quite strong feelings about why we are in the midst of an obesity epidemic and why the current advice is not working. I don’t find myself agreeing with absolutely everything said but over all this has been a great resource for me and I believe, in time, much of the thinking and ideas expressed by those in this movement will become mainstream.
A thought I had watching a recent video on this channel was that many medical conditions people face today, not just type 2, could well have been contributed to by so called ‘ultra processed carbohydrates’ and the prevalence of high carbohydrate, starchy foods in our diets. I’m not a medical person but I do know that I have been able to reverse my type 2 diabetes by cutting out sugar and starchy foods and replacing them with healthy fats and proteins.
I hope this is of interest to you and if you are on a similar journey, I wish you well.